Newswise — On the eve of a ten day strike called by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, non-union nurses at California Pacific Medical Center say the allegations about adequate staffing and patient safety do not match their everyday experience.
"My experience has been very different from the allegations made by CNA," says Rosangel Klein, RN, an oncology nurse at the Pacific campus. "We have always had adequate staffing and this year actually the staffing has gotten even better."
"There are always resources somewhere in the hospital that we can call on to ask for help," says Natalie Siu, RN, a nurse in the Transitional Intensive Care Unit. "When we get really busy our charge nurses come in to help. Then when our charge nurses get busy we have our critical care transport nurses who are an extra resource and they come in to help. When they're tied up we call our supervisor and when they're busy we call our managers. There are always many, many resources to call."
Nurses say they feel that not only do they have the resources they need to do their job and take care of their patients, they also feel that if there are issues of concern their voices will be listened to.
"I feel if I have a problem that my needs are met," says Connie Jennings, RN. Jennings has been a nurse for 34 years. "If I say something is a problem it's going to be taken care of in a timely manner, so I don't feel I need to be in a union. I was a union member when I was a licensed vocational nurse because I had to be. And the only thing I got out of that was a deduction in my pay check."
Other nurses echo Jennings' feelings. Joanne Squire, RN, has worked as a nurse for more than 30 years and calls CPMC "a great place to work" . She says she was a union member when she worked as a nurse in the U.K., but "I have been here for 15 years and never felt I needed union representation and am completely happy being here without a union."
"I've never felt the need to seek the union's help for anything in my 24 years of practice," says Carol Rich, RN.
CNA/NNOC is ordering its members to walk off the job starting 7am March 21st, until 7am March 31st. This is despite a new contract offer that will give a full-time nurse at CPMC an average salary of around $140,000 a year, plus free health care for themselves and their families, and generous retirement benefits. Of CPMC's almost 2,000 nurses, two thirds are non-union by choice.
"I've had a great experience working with CPMC," says Leanne Deegenaars, RN, a nurse educator. "There are excellent resources for nurses. If I've ever had an issue with the administration they've always been interested and receptive and actually had great resolutions of problems."
Christina Froshaug, RN, says this is her first job since graduating from nursing school and she chose CPMC because of its "great reputation." Froshaug says "I don't agree with the CNA allegations at all. We are treated with great respect and support. We have great benefits here. We also have great patient satisfaction. The patients say how wonderful things are here."
"I chose to come to CPMC because they have great people, great team work and to be honest, they pay pretty well," says Natalie Siu, RN. "Because there is a nursing shortage you can get to choose where you want to work. I chose to come here because I like the culture here."
Nurses like Carol Rich, RN, say if they weren't happy they'd be lining up to join the union, but they feel no need. "This is my hospital of choice. I came in to nursing as an older person and pretty much knew what I wanted. I work with lots of supportive people around me. I get very good benefits. I have been in nursing for 24 years and every year it just gets better."
"It's a great feeling at the end of the day to feel that you have made a difference in someone's life," says Siu." That's what made me want to be a nurse, and I like that feeling at CPMC."
California Pacific Medical Center. Beyond Medicine.At San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center, we believe in the power of medicine. We research the most up-to-date treatments, hire the most qualified individuals, and practice the most modern, innovative medicine available. We deliver the highest quality expert care, with kindness and compassion, in acute, post-acute and outpatient services, as well as preventive and complementary medicine. But we also believe that medicine alone is only part of the solution. That's why we look intently at each individual case and treat the whole person, not just the illness. It's why we go beyond medical care and provide our patients with things like disease counseling, family support and wellness treatments. As one of California's largest private, community-based, not-for-profit, teaching medical centers, and a Sutter Health affiliate, we are able to reach deep into our community to provide education, screening and financial support in some of the city's most underserved neighborhoods. Because medicine can transform a body. But going beyond medicine can transform a life. www.cpmc.org
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